Kidnapper jailed 16 years for $1.5m extortion plot

A kidnapper who tried to extort $1.5 million from the family of a young student he held captive for two weeks was today jailed for 16 years.

Alexander Yang Su, 34, was ordered to serve a minimum non-parole term of 11 years.

Victoria Supreme Court judge Justice John Coldrey said notes written by the 20-year-old victim during his ordeal showed he feared he would be killed.

The court was told the victim, who cannot be named, was snatched from outside his suburban Glen Waverly home on March 3, 2001, bundled into a car, bound and hooded and then driven to a garage where he was held for the first 24 hours.

He spent the rest of his captivity being moved around a number of suburban hotels.

He was eventually freed by investigating police who traced him through phone taps.

Officers found him in an hotel room where he had been left on his own.

Su was arrested shortly afterwards after he was traced through a call from a public phone box.

Justice Coldrey said Su had warned his "hostage" that he could not "run faster than a bullet".

The judge said Su told the victim he was from Sydney and was working for a gang who were paying him $200,000.

However, there was no evidence of the existence of a Sydney gang being involved in the plot.

The court heard that Su made a number of calls to the victim's home, with demands of $1.5 million for his safe return.

Later the amount was reduced to $800,000.

Su, who ran his own construction company, used a number of his workmen to chauffeur himself and his victim around and to bring food to their hotel rooms.

The court heard the victim was allowed a certain amount of freedom and was even taken to the Crown Casino by Su.

The judge said the jury had "rightly rejected the preposterous suggestion" that the victim had staged his own kidnapping.

The judge said he had no doubt he jury accepted the victim's explanation: that not knowing who was behind the kidnapping and having been told that his escape would result in harm to his family, he had no choice but to cooperate.

The judge said that Su, whose firm was in financial trouble, had been motivated by a "desire for money and large amounts of it".

Su had selected his victim from among several other "possible targets" he had considered.

Su is currently serving nine years with a minimum of seven years for trafficking in heroin.

The new minimum 11 year term operates from today.

Su's accomplice, Robert Fernandez, 27, who helped to overpower the victim and drag him to he car, was jailed for five years with a minimum of two and a half years.